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The Other Two Have Become the Main Two

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened — and is happening again for a third season! That’s right, the best show on TV has officially been renewed. Can I get a hell yeah?

Okay, now back to business: recapping the last two episodes of The Other Two’s sophomore season. As I think we all expected, they were, in the words of Lady Gaga, “Talented. Brilliant. Incredible. Amazing. Show stopping. Spectacular. Never the same. Totally unique. Completely not ever been done before.” But seriously, Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider have created something really special with this show, and I’m so glad we get to have more of it.

Episode 9: “Chase & Pat Are Killing It”

Our faves are flying first class, baby!

Cary and Brooke are traveling to Los Angeles for the debut fashion show of Chase and Lance’s collab line. They’re flying in luxury, surrounded by as many feet as there have probably been foot jokes on this series, and they could not be feeling better. Brooke has successfully managed her two clients to the coveted stage of Booked & Busy (though she’s still after her white whale of being considered Alessia Cara’s peer… but more on that later). Cary, in an effort to get past his Dean Brennon disaster, is finally using Grindr for real — and he’s excited about it!

So excited. Like, take-a-photo-of-his-butt-in-the-airplane-bathroom-to-send-to-a-Grindr-match excited. Cary is so caught up in his body contortions to get the perfect shot, he unfortunately doesn’t realize he’s taken a live photo. One that shows his face. I’ve asked this many times, but why do live photos exist? Who are they serving?

Anyway, he sends his first-ever butt shot to the guy he’s talking to, who then proceeds to show it to his friend. Who then proceeds to recognize Cary’s face and send it to all his friends. Who include some of the cast members of Frozen on Broadway. Who know that the cast of Wicked need to see this. You see where this is going.

By the time the Dubek siblings land, Cary’s nude is on every corner of the internet. What’s worse, all the news outlets are calling him the star of the upcoming indie film, Night Nurse, which, as we know, is no longer happening.

His first course of action is to go live on Instagram, which is as cringe-inducing as it sounds. Especially because he has yet to find out that his face is in the photo. It does, however, give us the golden Instagram live comment: “ok honestly wild fuck that hole.”

His second course of action (which probably should have been his first) is to race to a lawyer — and in a perfect scene, accidentally walks into two wrong offices, meaning he tells three separate lawyers that he needs help getting his “B.H.” off the porn sites/Twitter. From here on out I will only be referring to the image as Cary’s B.H. because it is extremely funny to me.

Unfortunately, all the lawyer can do for Cary is share that Bowen Yang has done a lip sync to Cary’s live — since there’s nothing you can do once something’s on Twitter. Or, more specifically, “once you are on Twitter you are, legally speaking, fucked.” Yeah, honestly, agree.

Brooke, meanwhile, has been absolutely basking in the sweet relief of not having to work for once. She doesn’t want a single person to know she works in entertainment, and so makes up as many boring jobs for herself as possible.

In the sauna, Brooke tells a woman that she’s an accountant before violently falling off the bench. The woman sees Brooke’s bleeding mouth and runs to get the dentist she met earlier. Who is none other than Alessia Cara, also giving strangers fake careers. Can we just take a moment to appreciate how flawlessly The Other Two plays the long game? I wrote in my last recap that the show is Always Referencing, but the self-referencing is equally well-executed — Alessia has been a bit for ages!

Cut to Alessia Cara, tired of the “humiliation” of still having to sing, asking Brooke to be her manager. PEERS IN THE INDUSTRY, I TELL YOU.

Cary is still on B.H. duty, and has gotten no help from Shuli — in fact she’s actually thrilled with the situation. Busy Philipps has just tweeted that she finds the airline’s response to the whole situation homophobic. Julianne Moore soon follows suit. You cannot tell me these would not be the *actual* celebrities on the front lines fighting for Cary if this were a real life scenario. Like, they were definitely both in the “Imagine” video. Or if they weren’t, they wanted to be. (I refuse to rewatch it to see for myself which one it is.)

He uses Grindr to track down the original recipient of the butt shot, landing him at a nightclub whose password is, conveniently, “I need to talk to someone about my hole.” Wandering through the party, Cary suddenly bumps into Cameron Colby of the Instagays. Back again, for a third time! He and his house-flipping husband have divorced, and he’s now living in LA with his new boyfriend, Aaron Schock. Reader, I screamed.

Cary finally finds the man he’s looking for and confronts him about the photo — then suddenly gets a call from his agent. It turns out, Busy and Julianne and now Patton Oswalt (because of course Patton Oswalt) have all pledged to see the nonexistent Night Nurse on opening night. Seriously, does Deadline never issue updates? No matter, because all this renewed attention on the project has brought the funders back, and Night Nurse is on again! And all thanks to Cary’s B.H.

With this truly incredible news, Cary heads back into the club and begins dancing and making out with everyone in sight. He’s finally letting loose, and it’s SUCH a joy to see.

Brooke isn’t having too bad a night herself. When Cary is unavailable to celebrate her newest client, she goes to visit Lance and Leah. Except it’s just Lance — Leah doesn’t arrive until the next day. Lance is so excited for Brooke’s news, giving us his signature “hell yeah!” And then the two proceed to party the hell DOWN.

By which I mean: they order an obscene amount of chicken nuggets, play heads up but make every answer Alessia Cara, and then get high and admire the hotel room’s décor. Seriously, I could listen to Lance talk about crown molding for hours.

Suddenly, though, they’re reminiscing on old times. And suddenly they’re looking at each other longingly from their separate beds. And just when you think they’re going to jump into each other’s arms, suddenly they’re putting their hands under their own covers and, let us say, taking care of themselves, together. Once they’re done, Brooke runs out of the room, feeling understandably complicated feelings.

We leave Cary and Brooke sitting by the pool, swapping their adventures from the day. As they share their excitement for the upcoming fashion show, we abruptly get horrifying flashes forward to what the day will hold. And friends… it does not look good! We knew there was a big blow-up on the horizon, and it is here. Moving onto the next episode with trepidation.

Episode 10: “Brooke & Cary Go to a Fashion Show”

After an episode that featured literally not one moment of its titular characters, Pat and Chase, the long-running title bit has finally reached its shining moment: an episode named after the other two Dubek siblings themselves. Which means, they’re no longer the other two. They’re the two. And so, our episode finally focuses on a day in the life of Pat and Chase!

I’m sad to report that their day… sucks. Pat wakes up at some ungodly hour and scrolls through one of the most terrifying-looking schedules I’ve ever seen in my life. Turns out, looks are not deceiving in this case. Her day goes like this:

Filming her talk show, with special guest Justin Bartha, who is promoting his new jazz album (and who refuses to lose on camera, forcing a fake tie in their foam wrestling match). An iconic cameo all-around, we must say.

Meeting and greeting her fans, including one who has made Pat a lasagna out of candy and another who has just moved to New York with no place to stay, inspired by Pat.

Dressing as the Statue of Liberty to surprise unsuspecting tourists in Times Square. I don’t need to explain further why this is bad.

Filming a very cardio-intensive music video for her upcoming 100th show.

Hosting an episode of “Tic Tac Toe,” the world’s most boring game show.

Flying to Los Angeles to walk in Chase and Lance’s fashion show, and using the flight to draft upcoming charity Instagram posts.

Host a “win-a-chance” fan at said fashion show.

So yeah. Hell. I yelled “get this woman a vacation!” and it seemed that Streeter heard me, because he asked Pat if they could go on a tropical getaway together. But Pat pretended to nap through this. Seems like all is not well in paradise with Streety. Honestly this is baffling to me — you mean to say this is not the perfect man?

(I am actually legally obligated to show pictures of that lewk to end all lewks as many times as possible.)

Let’s see how things are going for Chase. When we first see him, he is on Pat’s show and he is PISSY. He basically tells everyone his new clothing line is ugly (which, I mean, is not wrong — one of the colors is literally called “bad yellow”). Once the cameras stop rolling, he tries to confide in his mom that he misses singing. Unfortunately, she is sleeping with her eyes open and so is unavailable to chat.

The rest of Chase’s day is pretty much a constant barrage of a) finding out how many randos have the singing careers he wants — Justin Bartha? Jeff Probst? Okay, actually, I would buy Jeff Probst’s album — and b) no one in his family is listening to him. The closest he gets to having a shoulder to lean on is Lance, who covers up for Chase by putting on a top with a completely transparent frame around his abs. Thank you, Lance.

But even that is short-lived, with Brooke taking Lance away for a serious chat about their recent infidelity. Brooke is unaware that Lance broke up with Leah, and so to protect herself she tells him that she won’t let herself fall in love with him again, and says goodbye with her own “shitty little kiss.” UGH. I keep rooting for them and they’re making it so hard!!!

Finally, the fashion show starts. Lance is so happy he could cry, whereas Chase is completely uninterested (as Shuli puts it, “he’s really nailing this fashion shithead thing”).

Now, you all know I am ride or die for Lance. But these clothes are simply… not good. All the people calling the looks “dope” clearly have their visions clouded by newfound fame. For once, I am on the side of Pat’s win-a-chance guest, who is forced to walk the runway with nothing but a see-through rain jacket on. Poor Kathy!

At last, it’s Pat’s turn to walk. She has been whisked through the loading area wearing a gigantic white dress. It’s giving… it’s giving Lizzie McGuire.

She’s also wearing noise-canceling headphones and a head covering made of plastic, so she obviously passes out seconds into her runway moment. The music comes to a stop, and her kids start calling for an ambulance. Finally, she comes to — but not quite all the way. Instead, she has a breakdown and delivers a piece of true performance art, rapidly uttering phrases from her day (including my personal favorite, “oh wow Justin Bartha!”). I’m so thankful that we are unlocking Molly Shannon’s full potential at last.

Understandably, the whole Dubek clan ends up in the hospital, with Pat being treated for dehydration and exhaustion. Cary momentarily thinks it’s something more serious when he overhears the nurse say “she’s braindead” — but this is actually ANOTHER ACTOR TRAINING IN A HOSPITAL. The actors must be stopped.

Finally, the family is allowed in to see Pat. Including Streeter, who tells the nurse, “I should be included because I’m basically family.” This man never quits.

In Pat’s room, all the family tensions finally come to a head. Pat shares how stressed she has been dealing with her grueling work schedule and “all the Kathys.” She’s being apologetic about the whole thing, until finally Chase breaks in. He’s completely had it with not being heard by his management — specifically Brooke — and tells her off for not listening to what he and Pat want.

I need to give huge props to Case Walker here. He is giving us *ACTING* in this scene. The way his voice sounds like it’s about to crack because he’s not used to being so angry? The way he looks like he’s genuinely trying not to cry? Truly killing it.

Brooke is shocked to hear that she has been ignoring her clients’ needs, to which Streeter, in the least self-aware moment possible, tells her to be more self-aware. It’s too much for Pat, who finally confesses to him that she is feeling smothered by his affections. Specifically, “Your personality adds work to my day.” OOF. I actually don’t know if I’ve ever heard a more devastating line used to break up with someone. How do you even recover from that?

Well, in true Streeter fashion, he swallows his hurt and suggests that the whole family (minus him) go on a beach vacation together. He will truly do anything to be liked, and I have never related more.

Since he doesn’t know about Brooke and Cary’s upcoming professional updates, he decides to book the trip immediately. If Brooke is only Pat and Chase’s manager, she won’t need to work while they’re both on vacation. And, in Streeter’s words, “Cary can be gay anywhere.” A perfect summation of his career to date.

Brooke and Cary rush outside to the hallway to commiserate. They’ve finally become the main two, and it’s hard to give that up — even when their family needs them. It’s a really honest moment. They’ve come so far since the start of this series and are so close to finally attaining the success they’ve been working towards. But we know how much their family means to them, even if they haven’t shown it lately.

In the end, Brooke opts to join the vacation. She has been so overworked with just Pat and Chase as her clients, I honestly couldn’t have imagined how she would have fit Alessia Cara into the mix without truly losing it. But who is the fourth on this Dubek family getaway? Not Cary, but Streeter! It seems his gesture has endeared him to Pat and her kids once more.

We leave the family in some sort of weird White Lotus crossover, eating tater tots and finally enjoying a stress-free holiday.

Far be it from The Other Two to leave us without one final laugh, though. Louis Peitzman tweeted it best:

What is that final joke? Well, Curtis has deservedly taken over hosting duties on “The Gay Minute,” and he has an exciting announcement about Cary’s career. That’s right — Cary’s star turn in Night Nurse is about to begin, with the first table read scheduled for March 13, 2020. And THAT, my friends, is how you end a comedy season.

This season of The Other Two has been such a joy to watch. It’s maintained the chaotic comedy of its first season while allowing Cary and Brooke’s complexities to shine and mature. Now that the two have become main characters not just in our world, but in their family’s lives, I’m so excited to see what comes next — especially in the context of the pandemic, which is clearly playing a part. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait as long as last time.

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Written By

Allyson lives in New York, where she was born and raised. She likes short stories and long movies. When she's not writing about Film & TV or conducting research for cultural institutions, you can find her making sure everyone knows she's Italian.

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